This chapter explores appropriations of the concerns and methods of contemporary art as a strategy for global inscription by offering a reading of César Aira's “Duchamp en México” (1997) and Mario ...
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This chapter explores appropriations of the concerns and methods of contemporary art as a strategy for global inscription by offering a reading of César Aira's “Duchamp en México” (1997) and Mario Bellatin's Lecciones para una liebre muerta (Lessons to a Dead Hare, 2005). It considers how Aira and Bellatin refashion the republic of letters by adopting the conventions of a neighboring construction, “the art world,” and how they operate within literary circuits as if they were curators and contemporary plastic artists themselves. Aira assumes the persona of Marcel Duchamp, while Bellatin takes on that of Joseph Beuys. It also examines how allusions to landmark works of international contemporary art destabilize the rituals involved in the promotion of literature, calling on their underlying exoticism.Less

On Duchamp and Beuys as Latin American Writers

Héctor Hoyos

Published in print: 2015-01-27

This chapter explores appropriations of the concerns and methods of contemporary art as a strategy for global inscription by offering a reading of César Aira's “Duchamp en México” (1997) and Mario Bellatin's Lecciones para una liebre muerta (Lessons to a Dead Hare, 2005). It considers how Aira and Bellatin refashion the republic of letters by adopting the conventions of a neighboring construction, “the art world,” and how they operate within literary circuits as if they were curators and contemporary plastic artists themselves. Aira assumes the persona of Marcel Duchamp, while Bellatin takes on that of Joseph Beuys. It also examines how allusions to landmark works of international contemporary art destabilize the rituals involved in the promotion of literature, calling on their underlying exoticism.

This book defines and explores new trends in how we read and write in a globalized era. It does this through a comparative analysis of the novels of Roberto Bolaño and the fictional work of César ...
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This book defines and explores new trends in how we read and write in a globalized era. It does this through a comparative analysis of the novels of Roberto Bolaño and the fictional work of César Aira, Mario Bellatin, Diamela Eltit, Chico Buarque, Alberto Fuguet, and Fernando Vallejo, among others. It calls attention to fresh innovations in form, voice, perspective, and representation, and also affirms the lead role played by Latin American authors in reshaping world literature. The book focuses on post-1989 Latin American novels and their representation of globalization. It considers the narrative techniques and aesthetic choices Latin American authors make to assimilate the conflicting forces at work in our increasingly interconnected world. It challenges the assumption that globalization leads to cultural homogenization, and identifies the rich textual strategies that estrange and re-mediate power relations both within literary canons and across global cultural hegemonies. It shines a light on the unique, avant-garde phenomena that animate these works, such as modelling literary circuits after the dynamics of the art world, imagining counterfactual “Nazi” histories, exposing the limits of escapist narratives and formulating textual forms that resist worldwide literary consumerism. These experiments help reconfigure received ideas about global culture and advance new, creative articulations of world consciousness.Less

Beyond Bolaño : The Global Latin American Novel

Héctor Hoyos

Published in print: 2015-01-27

This book defines and explores new trends in how we read and write in a globalized era. It does this through a comparative analysis of the novels of Roberto Bolaño and the fictional work of César Aira, Mario Bellatin, Diamela Eltit, Chico Buarque, Alberto Fuguet, and Fernando Vallejo, among others. It calls attention to fresh innovations in form, voice, perspective, and representation, and also affirms the lead role played by Latin American authors in reshaping world literature. The book focuses on post-1989 Latin American novels and their representation of globalization. It considers the narrative techniques and aesthetic choices Latin American authors make to assimilate the conflicting forces at work in our increasingly interconnected world. It challenges the assumption that globalization leads to cultural homogenization, and identifies the rich textual strategies that estrange and re-mediate power relations both within literary canons and across global cultural hegemonies. It shines a light on the unique, avant-garde phenomena that animate these works, such as modelling literary circuits after the dynamics of the art world, imagining counterfactual “Nazi” histories, exposing the limits of escapist narratives and formulating textual forms that resist worldwide literary consumerism. These experiments help reconfigure received ideas about global culture and advance new, creative articulations of world consciousness.